Wednesday, 12 January 2011

That’s really saying something considering I’ve spent most of my life in a light shop.

The joke is this is our last week.

This Saturday we close our doors to the public.

And then we open them again on Sunday to pack up, and if a few members of the public fancy a quick purchase then we will let them in.

But then we really, truly close our doors.

It’s probably because these are our last 4 days that I’m so motivated to make the most of them.

Petra and I are assembling crystal non-stop from the moment we arrive in the morning till the moment we force ourselves to say ‘enough is enough’, which can be any time after 7pm.

Lunch break is a vegetable pasty up a ladder.

To keep us going Mum supplies us with the occasional melt-in-your-mouth Lindt chocolate that a customer gave us at Christmas.

“Good job I’ve hidden them or we’d eat them all,” she says, which doesn’t make much sense since she must know where they are to be giving them to us.

Already this week chandeliers have been bought for houses in China, Jamaica, Ghana, Nigeria and Wales.

We’re selling real beauties for half their usual price.

People that cried when they saw the prices in Selfridges are now crying for joy because they can afford a real crystal, gold or chrome-plated chandelier after all.

Mum has been working into the early hours to get orders wired up and customised for low and high ceilings. Next comes the packing of these purchases, which can take half a day if they are for shipping.

Some customers appreciate what we do and others don’t and that’s how it has always been.

I’ve moaned in the past but now we’ve reached the end of the journey I don’t feel like moaning at all.

I wake up and I want to be at the shop making things happen.

I want to be rushing around finding boxes, making sellotape handles, lighting up lights that have never been lit.

I wake up and I realise that I’m looking forward to going to work.

I wake up and I want to be with my fellow Shop Girls, because they are simply the brightest and the best.